


Saved by Petals

by MandolinDoodler



Series: The troubles that come with supernatural powers [2]
Category: Coco (2017)
Genre: ALMOST Character Death, Coco adores her brother, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Miguel injured, Miguel will do anything for his sister, curse, supernatural powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-19 20:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14880747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MandolinDoodler/pseuds/MandolinDoodler
Summary: When Coco asked her brother to take her to the Land of the Dead this isn’t what she expected. Now she’s stuck with her deceased family hoping that Miguel is still alive when he finally comes to get her





	Saved by Petals

She remembers seeing the truck, the slight rust of the front bumper, the dusty headlights. She remembers hearing her mamá screaming from somewhere behind her, the sound heart wrenching and terrifying. And she remembers turning to see what could make such a strong woman make such a horrifying sound.

When she turned instead of seeing her mamá she saw her  _ hermano _ ducking towards her, his big brown eyes panicked and his hand impacting her small chest. In an instant her world exploded into vibrant oranges and yellows, a sound like a pile of leaves being harshly blown apart by a gust of wind filled her ears and she went from standing in a crowded market to landing on her back in a shop that looked near identical to the one her family had at home.

For a moment, Coco sat there. A lot had happened in less than 30 seconds and her brain needed a minute to catch up to the present.

Now, she sits in her Mamá Imelda’s lap, a blanket cushioning her bottom as tears roll down her cheeks and her breaths come in gasps. Every time she tries to explain what happened the tears become more intense and her throat closes up.

Coco might only be four years old but she’s almost five and she’s big enough to understand that whatever just happened isn’t good, so the tears keep coming until she cries herself to sleep. Just how bad the situation is doesn’t hit until later that night when she startles awake in a guest room. A dream -no, memory- wakes her up. The tears start back up and she wails because she now knows that the truck was going to hit  _ her _ but hit  _ Miguel _ instead because why else would he not be here right now, he must have been hit and he must not be okay because he hasn’t come to bring her home yet because she knows that would be the first thing he’d do if he were okay.

Tiá Victoria hears her cries first and rushes into the room, her nightgown rustling around her as she pauses to take in the sight of Coco. Without sparing another moment, the woman scoops the living girl into her arms, blankets and all, and begins whispering comforting words while smoothing down her hair. Victoria may not have had any children of her own but she remembers holding her own sister in her arms like this when they were very young and it’s easy to fall back into it.

While her tiá tries to calm her, Coco tries again to express why she’s crying. She gets bits and pieces out -mentions of Miguel, the market, a truck- but it’s not enough to get Tiá Victoria to understand that Coco’s soul  _ hurts _ right now, that her heart is pinching in her chest, that fear is crushing her inside and out. Her wails do not stop and it isn’t long before the rest of the family is peeping through the doorway, her Mamá Imelda and Mamá Coco stepping closer as if wanting to help but not knowing how.

Before long, Coco cries herself back to sleep.

Days go by and the family slips into a shaky routine. They don’t have any way to get Coco back to the Land of the Living or contact anyone there to let them know the youngest Rivera is safe (and they silently agree to stop mentioning this after it becomes apparent that it also means they have no way of knowing if Miguel is okay). They take comfort in the fact that they haven’t received a call from Family Reunions about Miguel arriving to the Land of the Dead as well as the fact that Coco isn’t slowly turning into a skeleton.

So they try to continue life as normal as possible if for no other reason than to provide a sense of familiarity for their living guest. Coco finds herself slowly adjusting and becoming more comfortable with her deceased family, but there’s still that lingering sadness in everything she does. She can’t get herself to smile as wide as she used to, can’t bear to dance around the workshop or kitchen, can’t even enjoy a sweet treat because she remembers that’s why her and Miguel were at that particular vendor in the market that day. If she hadn’t begged for a treat maybe they’d both be safe at home.

Most of all Coco can’t stand to be near her great-great- grandpa for too long. Before now she just thought her brother kinda looked like the their  _ abuelo _ , her only reference being the photo atop the  _ ofrenda _ . In person the similarities between the two are uncanny. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but Papá Hector is tall. Like, really tall. And  _ abuelita _ says that Miguel is tall for his age even though he’s not quite as tall as their papá, yet, but  _ abuelita _ thinks Miguel will get taller. And they’re both skinny and almost have the same face shape, her brother’s face maybe a little rounder.

But it’s not just their looks, it’s how they act. Papá Hector acts so much like Miguel that it  _ hurts _ Coco to be around the man.  She practically runs out of the room whenever he arrives and it isn’t long before the family picks up on the trend.

On her sixth night in the Land of the Dead, Papá Hector sneaks into her room after she once again wakes up crying. The tears aren’t as harsh as her first couple days here, but Hector can’t stand to see such a bright girl so broken and sad, so he decides he’ll play her a song. He quietly steps into the room and has to resist the urge to sit close to her when he sees the way her little body tenses up. Instead, he gently takes a seat towards the end of her bed, sends a soft smile her way, and begins strumming to a song he knows she hears every night.

_ Remember me, though I have to say goodbye _

The song seems to calm Coco and her cries die down to little sniffles with an occasional hiccup. If she closes her eyes she can imagine being back home with her big brother while he plays for her before bed, their voices mixing in a sweet harmony, the world shrinking to just the two of them.

The final notes of the lullaby ring out and Coco is hit with homesickness. The tears come back full force but instead of running to one of her grandmothers or aunts, she crawls over the bed and snuggles up to her Papá Hector. He reminds her of Miguel and that makes her sad, but she also wants nothing more than to be curled up next to her  _ hermono _ right now. Since she can’t reach her brother she takes the next best thing.

Four more days pass and the Riveras are becoming more worried. They received a call from Family Reunions two days ago telling them that Miguel has slipped into a coma-like state. He’s in a state of limbo until his body has healed more but they can't reach him since his spirit is still at the hospital in the living realm. Overall it’s good news because it means whatever happened to their boy at least he’s healing and isn’t about to permanently join them in the Land of the Dead, but it could be  _ weeks _ before he wakes up again not to mention another several weeks before he’s well enough to retrieve his sister.

Coco takes the news best out of all of them. Her big brother is alive and will be coming to get her when he’s all better. She still misses him, of course, but it’s okay because she knows now that he’s not dying. Gradually she begins to perk up more, her smile a little more sincere and a bounce in her step. Today Tiá Rosita is keeping her company by showing her how to make little dresses for her dolls when she eventually returns home. They’re sitting out in the courtyard enjoying the nice day when the front gate creeps open.

Rosita looks up first and gasps, her hands nearly losing their grip on her work. Coco looks up at her tiá’s shocked face and turns to see who has arrived. Her eyes widen and for a moment she can’t breathe due to her excitement. In a snap, her legs launch her forward and a euphoric laugh escapes her.

Miguel scoops her up and twirls her around with a matching laugh broken only by the kisses he plants all over her face. His knees give out on him and he holds her close as he stumbles to the ground. Her brother is warm and cozy and  _ alive _ .

The tears are back once again but these are happy, relieved tears. Coco’s grip on Miguel is unwavering when the rest of the Riveras enter the courtyard and they move to the living room to catch up on what’s happened the last couple weeks.

Miguel explains that they’d been at the market, the big market on the other side of town, that day with their parents. He’d taken Coco down a couple vendors from where their mamá was to buy her a treat when a truck came barreling out of the crowd looking like the guy at the wheel had lost control since it was coming straight towards them and the guy was honking his horn liked crazy to get people to move out of the way. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to grab Coco and make it out of the way in time, Miguel meant to grab her and get both of them to the Land of the Dead. He got as far as sending Coco before the truck nailed him and his concentration was broken.

He woke up two days ago to see his body lying in a hospital bed. It didn’t take him long from there to figure out he wasn’t dead (he still had all his muscle and skin) but the orange glow around his body told him he wasn’t quite part of the living realm either. Rather than dwell on what happened to himself, he headed to the nearest cemetery to cross the Marigold bridge and find Coco. The bridge lead him to the Mexico City arrivals department, likely because that’s where the hospital is. From there he was sent to the Santa Cecilia department and given directions to the Rivera’s home.

Now he’s back with his family, his sister wrapped tightly in his arms. After nearly two weeks of endless worry, the deceased part of the Rivera family can finally breathe. They revel in the peace for a little while longer before Mamá Imelda declares it’s time to help the rest of their family find some peace as well. She disappears to the workshop and returns with a freshly folded paper that she hands to little Coco with instructions to pass that onto Elena and her parents.

Coco nods obediently, accepting the hug from her great-great-grandmother and the ones that follow from the rest of her  _ familia _ . She refuses to move from Miguel and grips his t-shirt in her small hands when his grip shifts and she can tell the time has come to say goodbye to him as well. Though she knows she’ll see him again soon, the ache is back in her heart at the thought of leaving him again.

Miguel gives her one more hug, this one extra tight and reassuring as he whispers how much he loves her and she returns the gesture while telling him he’d better come home soon. The last thing she hears from him is a promise to do just that.

Then her world is a flash of orange and yellow and she’s standing in the kitchen. The fluttering petals catch the attention of her twin cousins who look at her with hope, then confusion, followed by surprise. Coco doesn’t think about how they might have been hoping for Miguel -for as long as she can remember her brother can disappear and reappear in a burst of marigold petals- and instead turns to find her  _ abuelita _ who still has her back turned as she grabs from the fridge.

When the old Rivera woman turns around even Coco can see how tired she is. And who could blame her after having one grandchild disappear to the Land of the Dead indefinitely and another slip into a coma indefinitely.

Without delay, Coco throws herself into the woman, her small arms reaching as far as they can around her waist. Elena startles at the unexpected hug and nearly stumbles back a step. Quickly gathering her bearings she sets her ingredients on the counter and returns her grandchild’s hug. It’s only after her arms are wrapped around Coco that she realizes who she is and suddenly tears are running down her cheeks and she lets out a heavy exhale that carries all the weight off of her shoulders.

It’s almost an hour later that Coco remembers the note from her Mamá Imelda. In all the commotion of returning home and getting drowned in hugs and food she’d almost forgotten the note tucked into her pocket.  _ Abuelita _ is just getting up to finally call Luisa and Enrique at the hospital when Coco bounces up and runs over to the older woman while waving the note.

“This is for you! From Mamá Imelda!”

And there’s a few seconds of somewhat shocked silence because in the near four years Miguel has been able to travel back and forth only one note has ever been sent and that was a threat from Elena to her tios. If a note was coming from Mamá Imelda then it had to be serious.

Elena buries her apprehension and takes the note, reading it silently to herself. Coco is looking up at her with her big brown eyes, waiting for her reaction along with the entire family. She comes to the end of the note and a relieved smile spreads across her face, her hand resting over her heart, and entire body finally relaxing.

“Miguel will be okay.”

Elena leans down to kiss Coco and thank her for delivering the note. She hands the paper to her husband to read and heads to the phone to tell her son and daughter-in-law that both their children are safe, that Coco is home, and that Miguel will wake up soon

**Author's Note:**

> I have a different story in mind about how Miguel finds out he can send people to the Land of the Dead and I meant to write that first so there'd be some order to this series but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. But anyway, by this time Miguel is well aware of that ability of his.
> 
> Next story will either be about him finding out he can do that or about some of the side effects his powers have on his family (over time).
> 
> I loved all your comments on the last story and I can't wait to see what you have to say about this one. Your comments motivate me to keep writing!


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